Is the Buddha a prophet of Allah?

I think Buddha was a prophet of Allah. His teachings and emphasizes were different than some other prophets (especially Arabian and Middle East prophets) and that is OK. God sends so many prophets (at least 124000) but the Quran mentions only the few (28 only). So where are the rest of the prophets?

God definitely sent prophets in China, India and in other nations. In fact the Quran confirms, God sends at least one prophet to every nation. A Muslim should not be doubtful about it. Some people say, Buddha did not teach how to worship God.

I think it is not a problem. God does not need our worship because God is not needy. We need God’s help and guidance so that we could have a peaceful and meaningful life here on earth. Gautama Buddha never said that there is no God.

Buddha taught how to serve mankind, how to take care the world for our own good, how to achieve peace, how to avoid violence, boastful, envy, jealousy, greediness etc. So his teachings are very much compatible with Quranic and Islamic teachings. Of course, some of his teachings might be distorted over time and it is natural.

Many of Prophet Muhammad’s teachings are also distorted and misaligned over time. Buddha is older than Prophet Muhammad so his teachings could even be more distorted. Still his teachings are so powerful and have resonating effects that so many people on the planet are benefiting from his great teachings.

It is a miracle indeed. Buddhism is the religion of peace, love, tolerance, forgiveness, kindness etc. and so does Islam. Of course many selfish people are doing something else in the name of Islam or Buddhism; that is a different story!

So it is reasonable to believe that Buddha was indeed a prophet of Allah (God). Remember being a Muslim, we should believe in all prophets and messengers of God and even we are not allowed to distinguish among them – the Quran confirms it.

So if Buddha was indeed a great prophet of Allah and if we disbelieve him, is not it very risky being a good believer? So, based on many evidences, I can say Buddha was indeed a great prophet of Allah. Thank you. God bless.

Musa Ali

Renatus Peregrinus wrote:

There are Muslims who do consider themselves as Buddhist or at least acknowledge that some tenets of Buddhism are compatible with the Islamic religion. In the Islamic tradition, the Qur’an states that God sent many prophets to all nations, but only a handful are mentioned for reasons of practicality.
There are two groups.

The first is rather aeclectic, and argue that the Five Precepts and Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths are relevant and compatible with the Qur’an and the supporting hadith. The Five Precepts are pretty much the “Ten Commandments” of Buddhism and are, simply,

to refrain from killing [seeQur’an 5:32]

to abstain from intoxicants, eg alcohol [seeQur’an 5:90-91]

to avoid deceiving or bearing false witness [there are manyhadith in Islam concerning this, I will not list them here]

to practise sexual temperance [seeQur’an 17:32] and

to never take what is not given [seeQur’an 5:38]

These five rules are all considered by Buddhists to be the sole necessary conditions for enlightenment/ emancipation/ Buddhahood, with mental discipline as being the main objective to be achieved by all humans.
For a Buddhist, any Muslim who practises ALL five precepts is already one step closer to nibbana. For a Muslim, mental discipline is essential in maintaining a relationship with God and for perfect adherence to the “Five Pillars” of Islam (this is one explanation for why the Ramadhan fast is mandatory for all Muslims of majority age).

Muslims can also argue that the Four Noble Truths, detailing the impermance of the mortal world and its pleasures, are also compatible with Islamic metaphysics, but there too are also Muslims who reject them as being contrary to Islamic theology, with the argument that suffering and pleasure are the will of God, and not due to your own actions (as implied by Buddhism).

Buddhism argues in favour of reincarnation, but from a Buddhist point of view, understanding of reincarnation is irrelevant, because what matters more to a Buddhist is not favourable reincarnation but mental discipline and kamma. Most Christians and Muslims fail to realise that the Indo-Buddhist tradition often see reincarnation as a negative, not a positive — and kamma can degrade forcing people into a state of existence similar to hell or jahanam as understood by the Muslim mind. Once sufficient kamma is achieved, then there is only nibbana.

Thus, a Muslim can also argue that the concept of kamma in Buddhism is also similar in tone and spirit of that of surah 99 in the Qur’an (notably vv 7-8).

The second group is more conservative, and simply argues that what Buddha preached was ACTUALLY the Qur’an, and that today’s Buddhists actually follow a corrupt version of the Qur’an. In the case of the Noble Eightfold Path, they argue that the Noble Eightfold Path is the path of Islam. I leave it to the floor to decide which conclusions are the right ones.Imran Ahmad, PhD from Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology wrote:

Yes. Buddha is prophet of Allah, he worshiped one God and preached unity of God.